The Caribbean, Trinidad. Distillery closed, site dismantled.

In 1975, under pressure from across the country, the government of Trinidad nationalized a number of companies, including Tate & Lyle, the English giant of sugar production and owner of Caroni Ltd since 1937. The very competitive economic context, however, led to the closure of the island's sugar refineries and the collapse of the molasses production required for the production of rum. In 2001, the government sold its shares in Rum Distillers Ltd (Caroni) to Angostura and closed the distillery in 2002. Caroni Ltd would be definitively liquidated on 31 July 2003. In October 2004, Luca Gargano, the CEO of the Italian spirit distributor Velier and a passionate rum enthusiast and photographer, visited Trinidad to carry out research for a future report. There he found the site abandoned and, within its cellars, a huge stock of barrels, some distilled in 1974. The story of Caroni began in 2005 and the distillery immediately became the subject of lore.

A traditional rum produced from Trinidad sugarcane at the Caroni distillery. Bottled in 2018 to celebrate the distillery’’s centenary (1918-2018) from a selection of barrels distilled in 2000. Bottled at “90° Imperial Proof”, equivalent to 51.4% ABV, by the French-Italian company La Maison & Velier. A limited edition of 13,654 “Replica” bottles (worldwide) in the style of the iconic 1940s bottle distributed by the distillery’’s owners at the time, Tate & Lyle.